In 1941, the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington state went into operation.

In 1945, the Arab League was formed with the adoption of a charter in Cairo, Egypt.

In 1946, the British mandate in Transjordan came to an end.

In 1972, Congress sent the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution to the states for ratification. (It fell three states short of the 38 needed for approval.)

In 1978, Karl Wallenda, the 73-year-old patriarch of “The Flying Wallendas” high-wire act, fell to his death while attempting to walk a cable strung between two hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Ten years ago: Shouting erupted in the U.S. House of Representatives as Democrats bitterly accused majority Republicans of trying to ram through a mean-spirited welfare overhaul bill. Convicted Long Island Rail Road gunman Colin Ferguson was sentenced to life in prison for killing six people.

Five years ago: Journeying to the cradle of Christianity, Pope John Paul II knelt and prayed in Bethlehem at the traditional spot of Jesus’ birth. Some 1,100 women denied jobs with the now-defunct U.S. Information Agency and its broadcast branch, the Voice of America, won $508 million from the government in the largest-ever settlement of a federal sex discrimination case.

One year ago: Hamas spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, enraging Palestinians. Terry Nichols went on trial for his life in the Oklahoma City bombing. (Nichols, already serving a life sentence for his conviction on federal charges, was found guilty of 161 state murder charges, but was again spared the death penalty when the jury couldn’t agree on his sentence.)